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OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition is looking for a little help to crest 500 children’s savings accounts this spring, officials said.

ONAC is accelerating toward its goal of making a college education possible for every tribal child in the state, establishing more than 460 college savings accounts just since 2014. Most of those accounts have been through the Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan. But ONAC operates in other states as well – for example, the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma’s seat of government near the state line – so ONAC helped establish accounts in Missouri. By residents opening accounts in their respective states’ 529 plans, they receive state tax benefits for contributions.

Every little advantage is important, said Christy Finsel, ONAC executive director and president. At least half of the youth with accounts are living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. And the higher education gap targeted by ONAC is huge. Fewer than 15 percent of American Indians have a college degree, federal statistics show.

“We want all American Indian youth in Oklahoma to have an account so they can start anticipating not just graduation from high school, but graduating with a college degree as well,” Finsel said.

ONAC’s program, which establishes a $100 nest egg for each applicant, is already the largest American Indian-led college savings account program in the country. Its partners include a wide range of tribally affiliated organizations such as Osage Financial Resources Inc., Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corp., Cherokee Nation Child Support Program, Mvskoke Loan Fund, Ponca Tribe Head Start, Pawnee Tribe Title VI Elderly Meals Program, Housing Authority of the Seminole Nation and the American Indian Resource Center Inc.

ONAC has adopted innovations from other organizations to extend its outreach. The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes summer Smart Youth Program, for example, complements its savings accounts with financial education classes for its children, tribal history lessons, physical activities and personal visits with local bank executives. At the end of 2016, President Terri Parton hosted an ONAC account-opening event at the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes community center in Anadarko, resulting in 30 new accounts.

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe has opened 61 accounts for youth enrolled in the tribe’s financial education program and attendees of the Early Childhood Learning Center, where annual College Savings Plan Nights are held. And the Mvskoke Loan Fund held a CSA-opening event that coincided with a Muscogee (Creek) Movie Night at the community theater. That event resulted in 116 new accounts.

In one of its more creative initiatives, ONAC is turning a problem into a solution. Officials are working with the Cherokee Nation’s office of child support services to establish a savings incentive: They offer private mediation with custodial and noncustodial parents to put owed money into a savings account instead, reducing that parent’s overall debt while committing more firmly toward the child’s future.

According to the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, such accounts represent more than just a few dollars in savings. Researchers at the center looked at the SEED OK experiment in 2007 as a large-scale policy test of universal, automatic and progressive savings for children’s education. The study looked at Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan accounts that were opened with an initial deposit of $1,000, as well as variations involving a $100 account-opening incentive, a savings match and educational materials. University researchers called it one of the most important policy tests of Child Development Accounts in the nation.

Among the outcomes, researchers found that child-focused accounts can change mothers’ attitudes about the future.

The accounts might also have a positive effect on mothers’ mental health. Some evidence from the SEED OK initiative supported the hypothesis, according to the study.

“The SEED OK follow-up survey measured mothers’ symptoms of depression about 3 years after the intervention began,” the study found. “Mothers in the treatment group report fewer symptoms of depression than do mothers in the control group.”

Further, three studies demonstrated that account-building in SEED OK had positive impacts on social-emotional development for children at about 4 years of age, especially for children in some disadvantaged groups.

The good work is obvious to Deb Echo-Hawk, the Pawnee Nation’s federal Title VI Elderly Meals Program director. Her tribe recently jumped a generation to help grandparents open accounts for their grandchildren. One of her staff members also drives elders to the bank to make deposits. The initiative will help those who are raising their grandchildren, she said.

“Education is so important, and we want to see our elders help direct their goals at an early age in their development,” Echo-Hawk said. “The program has just been wonderful in promoting that idea, getting kids interested in cultural and community projects.”

Demand for college savings accounts in Oklahoma is outstripping resources, however. Finsel said CSA partners have expressed interest in opening 450 more accounts than ONAC now has funds to support.

The organization has big plans for expansion of its services. ONAC has been helping families open accounts by hand so far. An online application is in the works and should be ready to launch soon, officials said.

That will help another development: The ONAC board recently approved opening CSAs for any American Indian youth residing in the United States and its territories.

And ONAC recently became a partner in the 1:1 Fund through the nonprofit Prosperity Now, becoming the first American Indian-based organization to join that crowdfunding project. The 1:1 Fund is capitalized by Prosperity Now, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., that helps low- and moderate-income families build and preserve homes, businesses and education. Finsel said that avenue will open even more possibilities.

Tribal Economic Impact 2018 – Building New Opportunities (Click here to read more from this special issue.)